More and more customers of enterprises are embracing and using automated Self-Service Terminals (SSTs) to conduct transactions with those enterprises. For example, in the banking industry Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) can now almost entirely complete any transaction a customer is in need of without a teller's physical presence being required.
Moreover, ATMs situated in a bank branch can offer customers real-time assistance while the customers are transacting at the ATMs. The assistance can come in the form of a teller present at the bank branch or can come through remote video link to a remote teller.
However, customers do not like to wait when they need assistance and expect to be treated expeditiously by their banks. So, when a customer wants assistance from a teller and has to wait until one becomes available, the customer may become increasingly displeased with his/her bank the longer the wait grows.
For example, suppose a customer requests assistance of a local teller at a bank branch from an ATM but all local tellers are busy servicing other customers. Conversely, suppose a customer requests assistance of a remote teller from an ATM via a video link but all available remote tellers are busy servicing other customers.
In still another situation, suppose a customer initiates a transaction at the ATM but has no idea that the transaction requires a local or remote teller to inspect the transaction and either authorize the transaction or seek an override for the transaction to proceed. In this situation, the customer may not even realize that assistance is needed and may only receive a message back from the core banking system that the transaction was denied, which means the customer then has to go to a local teller queue at the bank branch and ask why the transaction failed.
Typically, tellers may have limited information regarding the transactions customers are performing at the ATMs within the bank branch, such that a failed transaction needs to be reinitiated and started over on failure. This is time consuming for both the customers and the tellers (local or remote).